敗血症是病源菌感染生物體後，侵入體內血液循環所引起的全身性發炎反應，死亡率高達20~50%，如何盡早評估敗血症的嚴重程度以及辨識出容易產生不良預後的病患族群，成了敗血症治療時的關鍵，中醫臨床上使用的辨證論治模式重視個體與不同病程階段的差異性，是一個簡便好用的分類工具。過去的研究發現，敗血症患者預後與中醫證型「陽虛證」顯著相關，而男性患者又較女性患者容易有陽虛證的表現。因此本研究藉由給予不同性別的敗血症大鼠補陽中藥鹿茸，希望能夠提升敗血症大鼠的存活率，並且設計睪固酮組來比較中西藥的效果。
本研究將成年Sprague Dawley公鼠與母鼠各81隻分別分成六組：高劑量鹿茸組（n=15）、低劑量鹿茸組（n=15）、高劑量睪固酮組（n=15）、低劑量睪固酮組（n=15）、空白對照組（n=15）、假手術組（n=6），以盲腸結紮與穿孔手術作為敗血症動物模型，在術前預防性連續給藥三天，並利用頸動脈插管於術後1, 6, 9, 12小時測量心跳、血壓並抽血做細胞激素的測量，之後將大鼠放回籠中紀錄存活天數。
結果顯示在敗血症發生之前預防性給予大鼠補陽中藥鹿茸，可以增加敗血症大鼠的三天存活率，雖然在心跳和血壓方面，治療組與空白對照組並沒有顯著的差異，但在細胞激素的濃度上，高劑量鹿茸與高、低劑量的睪固酮在第十二小時均能降低公鼠血清中IL-6的濃度，而給予母鼠高劑量鹿茸則從第六小時開始就能有效壓制血清中IL-6濃度；低劑量睪固酮組的公鼠在第十二小時血清IL-10濃度明顯下降，高劑量鹿茸在第九小時、低劑量睪固酮在第九小時之後也都能使IL-10的濃度下降。
The high mortality rate of sepsis has long been a tough issue for physicians. Since there is lack of effective treatment for sepsis besides fluid supply and infection control, differentiate the severity of patients and give them proper and timely treatment is extremely important. Previous clinical studies showed that the Chinese medicine disease pattern “Yang-deficiency” is a useful and simple diagnostic tool to identify those who are more likely to expire among septic patients. Hence, we use a Yang-supplement Chinese medicine Antler and a drug testosterone in comparison to see if the supplement of yang can increase the survival rate in septic rats. We grouped 81 male and 81 female Sprague-Dawley rats into six groups separately: high dose antler, low dose antler, high dose testosterone, low dose testosterone, placebo and sham control. We used cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) as septic animal model and preventively administrate medicine continuously three days before CLP. Carotid artery cannulation was performed right after CLP to monitor heart rate and blood pressure. Blood samples were gathered at 6th , 9th , 12th hours after CLP to evaluate serum IL-6 and IL-10 concentration using Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The result suggests that the Yang-supplement Chinese medicine Antler can effectively increase the survival rate of septic rats.
